Any good Sci-Fi books I can put on my X-Mas list?

[paperfist]

Howdy folks,

I was looking through what Amazon readers thought were the best Sci-Fi books and if it wasn't Harry Potter then it had something to do with dragons or Halo.

I'm not really into that stuff or fantasy realms that have names I can't pronounce

I'm a fan of mostly Orson Scott Card and Michael Crichton books so I like the technology/science/adventure type of books.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[a123456]

I liked John Scalzi's Old Man's War series. He has a particular style and humor that's not for everyone, though, if you read him too much.

For technology, the first few books of David Weber's Honor Harrington series might be okay. As he wrote more books, he got verbose and not as good, though, but the start of the series was decent.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'll second Scalzi's Old Man's War and the first few Weber / Harrington books if you like military SF.

Some good "hard SF":
Stephen Baxter - Manifold: Time
Robert L. Forward - Dragon's Egg
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - Adiamante

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Rendezvous with Rama!

 

[smackababy]

I would recommend anything by Philip K. Dick. Not really traditional science fiction, but very good. Quite a few movies were based off his books: Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly. Worth a look into.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Military SF?

40k Novels. Specifically Dan Abentt

The Gaunt's Ghost's series is one of the best SF series I've read. No weird names, just action, amazingly well fleshed out characters, and tons of moments in which you swear on your life you will kill the author and feast on his blood because of the awesome, the sad, and the exciting.

There's lot of variation in settings and scenarios and they're all interesting.

It's currently 10 books I believe, and you can pick them up in Omnibuses. The first one is called "The Founding"

I highly recommend it.

 

[Axon]

Armor by John Steakley. It's a novel with two stories, but they're both bad ass. The best story is of the orbital drop trooper who accesses a physiological state called "the machine" in order to be, essentially, unkillable.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. The quintessential military sci-fi novel and wildly superior to the film (except you don't get any Denise Richards, which I guess is the only drawback).

If you want something f**ked up and really just a crazy story in a sci-fi setting, get "I have no mouth and I must scream."

 

[SphinxnihpS]

You think Michael Chrichton is "good"? I have nothing for you.

 

[surfsatwerk]

http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Dan-S.../dp/0553283685

 

[BurnItDwn]

Haven't read it yet, but several of my friends say Rendezvous with Rama is A C Clarke's best work. (I loved all of the Odyssey series, as well as many of his short stories.)

I'd suggest perhaps looking at "Foundation" by Asimov. I've only read the 1st one, but plan to read the rest of the series as it was fascinating to me.

Otherwise Starship Troopers is great!

 

[dawp]

anything by Robert Heinlein such as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers.

Steel Beach by John Varley

The Mote in Gods Eye.

 

[Delita]

http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Dan-S.../dp/0553283685

I've haven't read his Hyperion books, but I did read The Terror and Drood. I though Drood was way too long, although interesting, and The Terror was really good till it went off the deep end near the end, so I'm not too thrilled in jumping into another one of his books. However, I hear his Hyperion books are his best, so I might look into them sometime.

 

[Exterous]

Peter F Hamilton has some very excellent books out there

If you like space battles John Campbell's The Lost Fleet series is good too (one of my favorites)

I also like John Walter Williams and his Dread Empires Fall series

 

[SagaLore]

Haven't read it yet, but several of my friends say Rendezvous with Rama is A C Clarke's best work. (I loved all of the Odyssey series, as well as many of his short stories.)

I liked it as well. But (in my opinion) the following Rendezvous books were crap.

 

[JTsyo]

Military Sci-Fi series I've enjoyed but my standards are pretty low:

WEBER:
Honor Harrington
Empire of Men
Starfire
Dahak

Drake:
Belisarius
Lt Leary


Old Man's War
Antares series

 

[Shack70]

Foundation series is a great series, but it's also kind of dry. If you liked Terminator 2, S.M Stirling did a great trilogy that takes place after the movie. The first book is called T2: Infiltrator - http://amzn.to/hwJgUO

 

[surfsatwerk]

I've haven't read his Hyperion books, but I did read The Terror and Drood. I though Drood was way too long, although interesting, and The Terror was really good till it went off the deep end near the end, so I'm not too thrilled in jumping into another one of his books. However, I hear his Hyperion books are his best, so I might look into them sometime.

In my humble opinion, yes.

 

[Kadarin]

I also like John Walter Williams and his Dread Empires Fall series

To clarify, it's Walter Jon Williams. I liked Dread Empire's Fall.

Be sure to check out his other work, including the outstanding Aristoi, along with the much older Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind.

Robert Charles Wilson is an author who writes excellent books that could use more exposure. Spin and it's sequel Axis are great, as is the unrelated Blind Lake.

If you like Dan Simmons' Hyperion novels, also check out Illium and Olympos.

 

[angminas]

You might try I, Robot before getting into the Foundation series. It's a short story collection which will introduce you to Asimov's style while engaging your brain.

In Heinlein, I recommend Have Space Suit, Will Travel. It's a young adult style which you may find more accessible than his other novels, and I think it's actually quite a bit better than, say, Stranger in a Strange Land.

I Have No Mouth is VERY crazy and VERY messed up. I consider it no more than well-crafted torture porn. Full of bitterness and despair...not worth putting in your head. Referring to the title story, that is...I don't remember the rest of the stories in the collection, but I remember I didn't like them.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny has a fascinating concept behind it which you will enjoy more if you don't read about the book first. I really liked discovering the world he created.

The Han Solo books are decent time-wasters.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I liked it as well. But (in my opinion) the following Rendezvous books were crap.

Hahaha, I've already been warned about them .... using the exact same description "crap."

 

[Blunc]

EE Doc Smith wrote some good "space opera" (Lensmen,Skylark series) you may be able to find it used.

the Starfist series is good if you like military scifi

 

[CallMeJoe]

The Mote in Gods Eye.

:thumbsup:
Anything by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle is worth the read.
Larry Niven's Ringworld series is also good.

For something a little different, try Harry Harrison's the Technicolor Time Machine or Bill the Galactic Hero.

For something massively different, Philip Jose Farmer wrote a pair of sexually graphic science fiction novels, Image of the Beast and Blown.

 

[Kreon]

Though some are already mentioned:

Military SF
Starship Troopers by Heinlein
Legion of the Damned, don't recall the author
Lt Leary Commanding was decent too, don't recall the author
Clone Republic series by Steven Kent <-- some of my favorite SciFi

Not Only Military
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons <-- They get a little weird, but wicked good
Rock Rats et al by Ben Bova <-- Almost every book in this universe is good, but I find those about Lars Fuchs vs Humphries the best.

I know there are more, will add if I think of them

 

[Delita]

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny has a fascinating concept behind it which you will enjoy more if you don't read about the book first. I really liked discovering the world he created.

I read through the Corwin arc of Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber series and really enjoyed them. They are more fantasy than sci-fi though.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Ill second / nth these:

John Steakley - Armor (Vampire$ was decent too, much better than the James Woods movie)
Dan Simmons - Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion
Larry Niven - The Mote in Gods Eye
John Campbell - The Lost Fleet series (fun, but popcorn miltary SF not terribly deep)
David Drake - The General series w/Stirling, Lt. Leary series, Belisarius series
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light
E. E. "Doc" Smith - Lensman series (this was the inspiration for the Vorlon / Shadow war arc in Babylon 5)

And add:
Brian Daley - Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds and the 2 sequels - classic space opera updated a bit